Wednesday, 4 April 2012

A walk in the Royal Docks

Sunday was such a lovely day we decided to go for on a little adventure way out in east London. I'd always wanted to have a snoop around the Millennium Mills building since I'd seen photos of the interiors on a few urban explorer sites - it looks absolutely incredible, if rather like a death trap, inside. I'd also recently seen an image of a fantastic viewing platform that used to stand in the Royal Victoria Gardens in the late 70s, and I'd never been to the gardens so I was curious to see what they were like so with mills and gardens in mind we headed out.

We walked from the far end of the docks past City Airport, through the Gardens, along the Thames as far as we could get before being spat back out to industrial wasteland. Past industrial carnage we were surprised to find an awesome Chinese cash and carry, though unsurprised to find brand new, grotesquely yuppie Barratt Homes blocks of thoughtless "investment" flats, sold on the back of being so near Pontoon Docks DLR and overlooking the Thames Barrier Park. We made it to the Millennium Mills at precisely the same time as a police car and so didn't get much further than the perimeter fence, sadly. More walking before a quick hop on the DLR to Blackwall for dinner, followed by a leisurely stroll into Canary Wharf.